To wait and seemay be too late

February 25, 2002

To the Editor:

According to your Feb. 20 story, Hayes Township is going to "wait and see what happens" with land divisions in their township.

Two points for Hayes Township and others in Otsego County to consider. First, it has been shown that the typical single-family housing development doesn't pay its way - it costs more to deliver services like schools, fire protection, etc. than they pay in taxes.

Second, there are things that can be done to manage land divisions and the size and density of housing built there even for site condominiums.

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If Otsego County had a professional planner on staff, as they do in other counties with similar growth issues, that person could be a resource to explain these concepts and help the county and townships deal with this.

It's much easier to just wait and see. But then it will be too late to do anything about it.